May 19, 2011

Local Community Theatre

"In 1912, two theatre groups were formed, the Toy Theatre
in Boston and the Little Theatre in Chicago, these events often cited as the
official start of the 'Little Theatre Movement' in the United States. Continuing
to react against commercialism, amateur companies began to write and produce
their own works as well as new plays from Europe that had been ignored by the
syndicates. A wide variety of experimental groups, clubs, and settlement houses like Hull House-Lake View undertook to reform the theater, bringing more inwardly directed plays to a
wider public audience. New forms of drama, some influenced by or parodying the
new science of psychoanalysis, began to be presented in smaller venues, many
converted from other uses into makeshift theatres. The new groups began to
experiment with new forms of storytelling, acting styles, and dialogue. This
experimentation, influenced by European models, ranged from an ultra-detailed
naturalism to, by the early 1920's, a wildly provocative expressionism, part of
a new (kind of) stagecraft." - '

Little Theater Movement'.The Great Depression years of the 1930's had a great impact to the theatre movement creating venues in order to express the social/cultural issues of the day. In time 'The Little Theater Movement' would begin to express itself either in drama or in comedy real folks doing real things. The 1960's and 1970's there was an explosion of homegrown theatre in Chicago. Young ensembles began performing in unorthodox settings, back rooms, and vacant
storefronts.

– Encyclopedia of Chicago

a scene of a production from the Oracle Theatre ensemble

Grand-Daddy of Local Theatre

The Jane Addam House - Lake View

Once such place was in a building operated by Hull House located at 3212 North Broadway Avenue now the home of

Lake View Athletics Club. While Hull House - Lake View served as a social net for the poor and the new populations of the area in its day this creative organization provide 'homegrown theater' to flourish in another area of the city. The main building on south Halsted Street harvested the establishment of Steppenwolf, Bailiwick, and About Face.

In Lake View, one of those theaters on the north-side was the Oracle*. While the Oracle theatre group at a few locations on the north-side it will be remember at Hull House - Lake View as this 1976 article below indicates.

The tiny boxed-in and dingy theater at Hull House

- Lake View was known for its social commentary with creative scripts as this 1965 and 1967

Chicago Tribune article indicates below

1967 article - a First in the Country

page 2

St. Nicholas Theater

Another theatre group known at the time was the St. Nicholas New Works ensemble that moved into the

The Neo's, founded in 1988 in a storefront on Clark Street and Belmont Aveune, was apparently the first
late-night theatre production in Chicago. This ensemble was created to explore "experimental theater and performance art & Italian futurism,
surrealism". My thanks to York M. Chan, contributor to Lake View Historical for information on Neo's.

The 'Little Theatres' of Lake View

From these early days of experimentation and dingy boxed-in theater spaces created a climate for a variety of theatre themes and exploration in Lake View. Basically, find a space somewhere and then start creating.

Hedwig Dance Company4410 N. Ravenswood AvenueWhile this organization is located on the other side of the (Ravenswood) tracks (North Central neighborhood) this dance ensemble performs periodically at the Anthenaeum Theater

According to LakeView Historical contributor York Chan, this theatre group has traveled full circle; for this group was initially located in Lake View at the 3153 N Broadway. That location housed 130-150 patrons according to 1990 Chicago Tribune article.

once located on Hull House-Lake View that is currently the location of the Lake View Athletic Club

a promotional photo at the Belmont El platform 1982

Here's a shot of the northbound end of the Belmont
platform in 1982, in a publicity shot for the Steppenwolf Theatre Company. In
this photo are Oscar nominees Gary Sinise, John Malkovich and Joan Allen,
multiple Emmy winners John Mahoney and Laurie Metcalf, Emmy and Tony Award
nominee Terry Kinney, and Tony Award winner Rondi Reed. This was just before everyone started to get famous.
Malkovich got his first Oscar nom in 1984 or thereabouts, and got two others
around 1986-87. The woman standing in the photo near him is Glenne Headley, to
whom he was married at the time. - a testimonial from Chuck Winans

Theatre Oobleck

3824 N. Broadway in 1990 - former Chateau Hotel building-now currently in the community of Edgewater-

Defiant Theatre

3540 North Southport Avenue

"Few defunct theaters are looked back on by storefront aficionados with the fondness earned by Defiant, which wrapped in 2004 after 13 years of punchy, poppy, ambitiously physical productions of Shakespeare (a 2003 Titus Andronicus, starring Larry Yando, was a gory scorcher), provocative contemporary playwrights like Caryl Churchill and Sarah Kane, and their own creations, such as the satiric Action Movie: The Play franchise (yes, franchise)."

For much of the '90s, the basement of Cafe Voltaire, a
vegetarian restaurant on Clark Street in Lakeview, served as an ad hoc
performance space where you could see plays, poetry readings, sketch comedy and
more on the cheap, with line cooks schlepping produce upstairs all the while.
Collaboraction and the Hypocrites performed their earliest shows here. -

Narrative & Navigation

This has been a passion of mine for several years. This passion began with a simple inquiry of an ornate gate that surrounds a parking lot on my street. This singular inquiry lead me to learn everything I could online about the history of my neighborhood - Lake View, one of the 77 neighborhoods within the City of Chicago. Consider this topical blog as an online library of information for educators like myself who intend to teach others about this historical & robust corner of Chicago. I hope you enjoy the read and add any type of comments at the end of each post. I have a Facebook presence called 'LakeView Historical'.